. >> obama came to the table with 1.6 trillion in tax increases and no spending cuts. he seems very confident he can bum rush them into a bad deal. i think that's because there's a sense out there, probably from the last two times these guys tangled, that the republicans are unwilling to in this case to allow themselves to go over the cliff. if you're in a negotiation where your opponent knows that you're unwilling to have that kind of aout come then they've got you right where they want you. i feel like obama thinks he's got the republicans right where he wants them. >> senator hutchson, the republicans were on the short end of the election to be sure. the point i'm making, your leader, senator mcconnell, came out with a pretty good reform planned to regarding medicare for example. i thought that was a very sensible entitlement reform. then he said we can talk revenues. why can't the gop go down that road, get house speaker boehner on there and see how white house reacts to this? >> i think mitch is doing that. as you know, i have a social security reform proposal tha